Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye hostage crisis

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye crisis


caption=
partof=First Chechen War
place=Kizlyar, Pervomayskoye and Sovetskoye, Dagestan (Russia)
date=January 9-18, 1996
result=Failure to raid of hostage-taking, Chechen are success to escape
combatant1=Russian Federation
(Army, FSB, MVD)
combatant2=Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
commander1=Mikhail Barsukov
Anatoly Kulikov
Alexander Mikhailov
commander2=Salman Raduyev
Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov
Turpal-Ali Atgeriev
strength1=More than 2,400 (Pervomayskoye)
strength2=150-300, eventually more than 400
casualties1=Kizlyar losses N/A

---

At least 26 killed and 17 captured in Pervomayskoye
casualties2=Kizlyar losses N/A

---

At least 35 killed and 11 captured in Pervomayskoye
casualties3=At least 24 civilians/hostages killed in Kizlyar
At least 17 civilians/hostages killed in Pervomayskoye
campaign

The Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye hostage crisis, known in Russia as the terrorist act in Kizylar (Террористический акт в Кизляре) was a guerrilla raid conducted by the Chechen separatists in January 1996 during the First Chechen War, which soon turned into a massive hostage crisis involving thousands of civilians.

The crisis culminated in a days-long fierce battle for the Dagestani border village of Pervomayskoye, resulting in the village of 1,200 people being completely destroyed by the Russian bombardment, [ [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9601/chechen_rebels/01-19/index.html Chechen siege: Embarrassment or triumph?] CNN, January 19, 1996] while the rebels escaped with some of their hostages including captured servicemen. More than 100 people died during the crisis, including at least 41 civilians.

Kizlyar airbase raid

On January 9, 1996, "Lone Wolf" unit led by the Chechen separetist commander Salman Raduyev, allegedly acting on Dzhokhar Dudayev's order, launched a copycat raid in the style of the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis against the helicopter military airfield and later a civilian hospital in the city of Kizlyar located in neighbouring republic of Dagestan.

A field commander Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov later said that he took over command of the operation from Raduyev after the latter failed in his mission to destroy the federal airbase, ammunition factory and other military and police installations in and around the city. [cite web
url=http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=20&issue_id=991&article_id=8719
title= Peer Criticises Performance of Chechen Commander Raduyev
publisher=The Jamestown Foundation
accessdate=2006-12-30 ] Only two or three helicopters were blown up at the airbase, but at least 33 people were killed in the assault and scores were injured.

Kizlyar hospital hostage crisis

Infobox terrorist attack
title=Kizlyar hostage crisis


caption=
location=Dagestan (Russia)
target=Kizlyar
date=January 9-10, 1996
time=
timezone=
type=Hostage crisis
fatalities=At least 19
injuries=
perps=
motive=

Rebel fighters led by Raduyev then entered the town itself, where they took at least 2,000 to 3,400 [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00EEDA163DF935A25751C1A9649C8B63 Former Chechen Rebel Leader, Once a Thorn in Russia's Side, Dies in Prison] "The New York Times", March 16, 2008] hostages and held them at a local hospital and a nearby high-rise building and a bridge. [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9601/chechen_rebels/01-18/chechnya_update/index.html Scores dead at end of hostage siege] CNN, January 18, 1996] (According to the Russian officials, there were "no more than 1,200" hostages taken.) At least 13 people were killed in street fighting [ [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9601/chechnya_am/index.html Chechen rebels hold at least 1,000 hostages in hospital] CNN, January 9, 1996] and 19 in the following siege (including 24 civilians [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19960120/ai_n9638659 Fog of battle clouds Pervomayskoye's ugly truth] "The Independent", Jan 20, 1996] ). [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9601/chechen_rebels/01-13/index.html Chechens offer trade: Hostages for politicians] CNN, January 13, 1996]

All but about 120 of captives were released the next day, after Russian authorities said they rebels must first release the hostages to get granted a safe passage back to Chechnya. [ [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9601/chechen_rebels/pm/index.html Chechens threaten to kill remaining hostages] CNN, January 11, 1996] About 160 hostages, some of them reportedly volunteers, were carried along by the guerrillas to act as human shields in order to deter Russian ambush along the route. [ [http://friends-partners.org/friends/news/omri/1996/01/960111I.html(opt,text,unix,russian,koi8,wood) HOSTAGE DRAMA IN DAGESTAN CONTINUES.] Radio Free Europe, 1 January 1996]

iege of Pervomayskoye

Infobox terrorist attack
title=Pervomayskoye hostage crisis


caption=
location=Dagestan (Russia)
target=Pervomayskoye
date=January 10-18, 1996
time=
timezone=
type=Hostage crisis
fatalities=At least 78 [ [http://www.gateway2russia.com/art.php?artid=27261&rubid=149&parent=Deaths&grandparent=Society Salman Raduyev; Obituary] "The Register", 17 December 2002]
injuries=
perps=
motive=

The rebels then headed in the direction of Chechnya in the column of 11 buses and two trucks, but they were halted when a Russian attack helicopter suddenly opened fire on their convoy as it approached the border between the two republics. A group of 37 Novosibirsk OMON policemen, who escorted the convoy and were caught in a crossfire, surrendered to the Chechens. The rebels rushed for cover to the nearby village of Pervomayskoye (also spelled Pervomayskoe, Pervomaiskoye, Pervomaiskoe or Pervomaiskaya), where they put the hostages into a local school and a mosque and put the captured policemen to build trenches. According to Itar-Tass, the Chechens seized an additional 100 hostages from among the population of the village. [ [http://friends-partners.org/friends/news/omri/1996/01/960112I.html(opt,text,unix,english,,wood) DEADLOCK IN PERVOMAYSKOE] Radio Free Europe, 12 January 1996] Some of the civilians were reportedly given weapons while some captive policemen joined the by the gunmen.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin spoke on national TV on details of the operation against the hostage-takers, famously demonstrating through gestures how "38 snipers" [ [http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19970628/17950833.html Is Yeltsin suicidal?] "The Indian Times", June 28, 1997] [ [http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/1997/04/12/032.html Reinventing Tsar Boris] "The Moscow Times", April 12, 1997] [ [http://babouchka.net/old.kavkazcenter.com/english/news/2001/05/10/news8.htm The last ring] Kavkaz Center, May 10, 2001] were supposed to cover the village and shoot all hostage takers. Yeltsin's remarks were later ridiculed to the point where it was denied he ever said this. [ [http://www.agentura.ru/english/experts/mihailov/ Confessions of a Disinformer from Lubyanka] "Versiya", March 19, 2002] Before launching the assault, Russian officials falsely stated that the rebels had "hanged six Russian soldiers". For the next three days Russian special forces tried to break into the village, supported by heavy weapons. They admitted losing at least 12 killed, including Colonel Andrei Krestyaninov, commander of Moscow SOBR. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805E1DA1139F934A25752C0A960958260 CHECHEN REBELS WIDEN RESISTANCE, HIJACKING A FERRY] "The New York Times", January 17, 1996] Cold and hungry, they described the fighting as "hell". [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9601/chechen_rebels/01-17/chechnya_captive/index.html Russians aim firestorm at hostage-takers] CNN, January 17, 1996] On January 12, 1996, the rebels freed the women and children; they said they would release the rest if four named respected Russian officials would take their place (politicians Grigory Yavlinsky and Yegor Gaidar quickly agreed, but retired Generals Boris Gromov and Alexander Lebed refused).

After the assault attempts failed, Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov and Federal Security Service (FSB) Director General Mikhail Barsukov falsely declared that Raduyev's men had "executed all of the hostages". Russian commanders then ordered that their forces open fire on the village with tanks and multiple rocket launchers. The FSB Major General Alexander Mikhailov said that the rebels "had shot or hanged all or most" of the hostages, and commanders planned said they now aid they planned to "flatten" Pervomayskoye. Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin also said that no hostages remained alive. Nevertheless, hostages were still alive and appealing desperately to the Russian security forces to cease firing on the village, as the "New York Times" correspondent reported that the Russians were "firing into Pervomaskoye at the rate of one a minute the same Grad missiles they used to largely destroy the Chechen capital Grozny when the conflict began." The shelling and fighting reportedly killed 16 hostages. [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9601/chechen_rebels/01-18/10_am/index.html Rebels apparently gone; hostages free] CNN, January 18, 1996] General Barsukov later said, laughing, that "the usage of the Grad multiple rocket launchers was mainly psychological," [ [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9601/russia_hostage/index.html Russian soldiers say hostage-freeing mission mismanaged] CNN, January 23, 1996] and claimed that only three lauchers were deployed and only one was used. Russian troops attacking the village included the Nalchik FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko, whose "ad-hoc" unit came under friendly fire from Grad rockets, resulting in the death of two of his comrades.

During the days when the Russian troops stormed Pervomayskoye a large crowd of people, the relatives of the hostages, gathered near checkpoints located 10 kilometers from the settlement, as Dagestani police did not allow them to come nearer to the site. These people stood in silence and watched how the Russian troops bombarded with the rocket launchers and other heavy weapons the settlement where their relatives were supposedly being held, [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9601/chechen_rebels/01-24/index.html Chechen rebels survive, prolong hostage crisis] CNN, January 24, 1996] including other artillery, helicopter gunships and combat jets. [ [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9601/chechen_rebels/01-17/index.html Heaviest assault yet on Chechen hostage-takers] CNN, January 17, 1996] [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9601/chechen_rebels/01-18/7_am/index.html Chechen rebels counterattack] CNN, January 18, 1996] Russian authorities sought to minimize coverage of the crisis by keeping correspondents kilometers away from the scene, confiscating equipment, and using guard dogs and warning shots on some reporters. [ [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=20&issue_id=984&article_id=8629 RUSSIANS BOMB PERVOMAISKOYE, TURKS NEGOTIATE WITH HIJACKERS.] The Jamestown Foundation, January 18, 1996] They injured several of them, including a cameraman from American Broadcasting Company television and a "The Christian Science Monitor" correspondent (one reporter was fired upon by soldiers at a Russian military checkpoint). The Russian forces also turned away a long line of relief workers, including representatives of Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Rebel breakout

On the eighth night, despite Interior Minister Kulikov's assurances that three rings of security forces had surrounded the village, Raduyev and his men managed to break out of the encirclement and escape early morning of January 18, 1996, taking with them between about 20 Russian police hostages and some civilians. A number of wounded guerillas being carried on stretchers, while some 20 seriously injured fighters who could not be transported were left behind.

The storm group led lost 17 out of 40 members during the escape, according to its leader, Turpal-Ali Atgeriev. [ [http://smallwarsjournal.com/documents/atgireyevinterview.pdf Interview with Turpal-Ali Atgeriev] ] The following support group with the wounded and hostages led by Aydemir Abdallayev lost 26 men killed, according to Abdallayev. [ [http://smallwarsjournal.com/documents/atgireyevinterview.pdf Interview with Aydemir Abdalayev] ] The rear guard was commanded by Suleiman Bustayev. [ [http://smallwarsjournal.com/documents/atgireyevinterview.pdf Interview with Suleiman Bustayev] ] Many of the rebels were killed by strafing attacks from Mi-24 helicopters in the ensuing pursuit; three or four hostages also perished. The breakout column eventually crossed a freezing border river using a gas pipeline and escaped.

At the same time, another 200 to 300 guerrillas, sent by Dudayev, crossed the border from Chechnya where hundreds of fighters from all over Chechnya grouped under the command of Maksud Ingulbayev. In a diversionary attack to aid in the breakthrough they attacked the Russian lines from behind and then briefly took over a schoolhouse in the neighboring village of Sovetskoye, just a few kilometers outside Pervomayskoye. The relief column, like Salman Raduyev's detachment earlier, apparently made its way through Russian-patrolled areas of Chechnya and Dagestan (Russian military and law-enforcement officials accused the residents of two nearby villages of having colluded with the rebels).

Russian forces finally captured a pulverized village full of the corpses of Chechen fighters, Dagestani civilians, and Russian soldiers. When the fighting was over, one Russian regular army soldier unintentionally fired his armored personnel carrier's cannon; the shell hit and blew up another armored vehicle, and its fragments landed on the elite Alpha Group team, killing two FSB commandos and injuring three. [ [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?search=1&volume_id=3&issue_id=145&article_id=1722 THE DEGRADATION OF RUSSIA'S SPECIAL FORCES] The Jamestown Foundation, May 17, 1996] 82 of the Kizlyar hostages were recovered alive, according to Yeltsin, but his Prime Minister Chernomyrdin said that only 42 hostages had been freed. The Chechens claimed to still hold more than 60 Russian and Dagestani captives, now held in the Chechen town of Novogrozny.

Related hostage crises

Turkish authorities meanwhile coped effectively with the hijackers of the Panamanian-registered ferry "Avrazya", captured on January 16 by an armed group of nine Turkish citizens of Caucasian origin in support of the rebels besieged at Pervomaiskoye. Turkish authorities, in constant communication and negotiation with the captors and ignoring Russian demands for a tough action, after three days secured safe release of the captives (177 mostly Russian passengers and a Turkish crew of 55) unharmed, and surrender of the gunmen without bloodshed. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B06E3DC1E39F933A15752C0A960958260 Pro-Chechen Ferry Hijackers Surrender to Turks] "The New York Times", January 20, 1996]

In Chechnya's capital Grozny some 29 employees of a power plant, Russians sent from Rostov, were kidnapped for ransom on January 17 by the group of Arbi Barayev. It was also reported that some 38 civilians, mostly ethnic Russians, had been kidnapped previous week in Chechnya's rebel-controlled Achkhoy-Martanovsky District and offered in exchange for Chechen fighters in Russian captivity and civilian Chechen inmates of Russian "filtration camps". Their release was negotiated later this month. [ [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?search=1&volume_id=20&issue_id=988&article_id=8669 CIVILIAN HOSTAGES IN CHECHNYA TO BE FREED.] The Jamestown Foundation, January 23, 1996]

Casualties

Raduyev's later indictment by the Russian prosecutor said 37 Russian troops and 41 civilians were killed during the raid. [ [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9601/chechen_war/index.html Russia issues arrest warrant for Chechen rebel leader] CNN, January 29, 1996] According to the separatist chief of staff Aslan Maskhadov 90 Chechen fighters died during the crisis, [ [http://smallwarsjournal.com/documents/maskhadovinterview.pdf Interview with Aslan Maskhadov] ] while Yeltsin said 153 were killed and 30 were captured. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E3DC1E39F933A15752C0A960958260 Yeltsin Criticized for Handling of Chechen Hostage Crisis] "New York Times", January 20, 1996] At least 65 people, including 24 civilians, were reported being killed in Kizlyar. Western analysts estimated losses in Pervomayskoye at 96 killed Chechen fighters and 26 killed hostages, with about 200 federal casualties. [ [http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1173/MR1173.chap3.pdf 07 MR1173.ch3 ] ] The full extent of civilian casualties remained unknown because the Russian army did not permit journalists access to the village during the attack and independent observers were admitted only after dead bodies of civilians were reportedly cleared from the streets by soldiers. [ [http://news.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR460201996?open&of=ENG-369 Brief summary of concerns about human rights violations in the Chechen Republic] Amnesty International 1996]

Aftermath

Russian press accounts of the carnage (including those by "Izvestia" corespondent Valery Yakov, who witnessed the fighting from inside the village) described a chaotic, overmanned, and bungled Russian operation in Pervomayskoye (Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer wrote that the armed services involved in the assault displayed a "fantastic lack of coordination)." The international organization Reporters Without Borders publicly protested Russian security authorities' intimidation of the press at Pervomayskoye as well as the Russian military authorities' ban on medical assistance to civilians and their refusal to allow evacuation of the wounded. [cite web
year=2006
month=August 9
url=http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?search=1&volume_id=20&issue_id=986&article_id=8656
title=PERVOMAISKOYE DEBACLE IN RETROSPECT.
publisher=The Jamestown Foundation] The United States Secretary of Defense William Perry, however, said that Russia was "justified" in using military force in response to hostage-takings. Yelstin defended the assault on Pervomayskoye, saying the operation was "planned and carried out correctly."

On January 19 1996, Raduyev proposed to exchange the police hostages for the seriously wounded fighters he had left behind. The Chechens announced their readiness to turn over remaining civilian hostages to Dagestani authorities. A special resolution by the Russian State Duma granted amnesty for the 11 captured guerrillas. They were swapped in exchange for the 17 policemen (a CNN report said the captives were "12 Russian soldiers and six police officers" [ [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/Newsbriefs/9601/01-23/index.html Chechen rebel leader still defiant; hostage release delayed] CNN, January 23, 1996] ) seized by the rebels in Pervomaiskoye. [ [http://www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000005-000004-000127&lang=1 In Chechnya, little faith in amnesty] Prague Watchdog, August 9th 2006] On January 27, 1996, 26 Chechen fighters, whose bodies were too swapped for hostages [ [http://usa.agentura.ru/friends/news/omri/1996/01/960124I.html(opt,mozilla,unix,english,,new) YELTSIN, ZAVGAEV ON CHECHEN PROSPECTS.] Radio Free Europe, 24 January 1996] and returned by Russian authorities through Dagestani intermediaries, were buried in the Tsotsin-Yurt village cemetery, considered a holy place because it holds the bodies of 400 Chechens killed fighting Russian forces during the Russian Civil War in 1919. [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=20&issue_id=993&article_id=8745 PERVOMAISKOYE DEBACLE REVERBERATES IN NORTH CAUCASUS.] The Jamestown Foundation, January 30, 1996]

The hostage crisis also caused a split among the Chechens, and Salman Raduyev was denounced by top Chechen rebel leaders. According to the Polish volunteer Mirosław Kuleba (Mehmed Borz) who met Raduyev two months after the crisis, it's possible that Raduyev meant to ignite a broader civil war in Dagestan. Kuleba said Raduyev tried to hide in the conversation that the taking of hospital and gathering of hostages was planned from beginning. [Mirosław Kuleba, "Szamil Basajew"] Raduyev was soon shot in the head in what some reports described as an ambush by rival guerillas and reported killed. [ [http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9603/raduyev_dead/index.html Chechen rebel leader killed, reports say; Fierce fighting erupts] CNN, March 6, 1996] He resurfaced after the war (and the death of Dudayev) to became a renegade warlord.

Raduyev was captured by the Russians during the Second Chechen War and in 2001 sentenced to life in prison; he died in prison colony in 2002. Same year, Turpal-Ali Atgeriev (sentenced to 15 years) also died in prison. The both died in a mysterious circumstances. [ [http://www.cacianalyst.org/view_article.php?articleid=715 IMPRISONED CHECHEN FIELD COMMANDER DIES MYSTERIOUSLY] CA-CI, December 16, 2002] Two other participants of the raid were also convicted – Aslanbek Alkhazurov to five years imprisonment (Alkhazurov died in prison in 2004 [ [http://www.hrvc.net/news2004/5-3-04.html Secret execution of Chechens in prisons of Russia] Chechenpress, 2 March 2004] ) and Husein Gaisumov to eight years. [ [http://www.prima-news.ru/eng/news/news/2002/4/12/9604.html Raduev’s appeal rejected] Prima News, 12.4.2002]

ee also

*Beslan school hostage crisis
*Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis
*Moscow theatre hostage crisis

References

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2357109.stm Chechen rebels' hostage history] , BBC News, 1 September, 2004